Colloquium at Villa Vigoni: German-Italian Relations after a Decade of European Crises

From 7 to 9 October, the colloquium "E la nave va? Perspectives on Germany, Italy and the European Union after a decade of crises" took place at Villa Vigoni on Lake Como. Our team was actively represented there. The doctoral students Nils Sartorius and Lukas Brenner presented research projects dealing with media representations of images of nations (Nils Sartorius) and of right-wing populist parties in the European Parliament (Lukas Brenner & Nils Sartorius). Mohamed Salhi, who is working on a doctoral thesis on discursive narratives of the radical right in times of crisis, discussed initial results of his work with a focus on Italy and Germany. The post-doctoral researchers Baastian Bruinsma and Benedikt Bender each chaired a panel on questions of the influence of the Covid pandemic on the behaviour of Germany and Italy in the EU (Bastiaan Bruinsma) and on differences in socio-economic attitudes of Europeans with a special focus on Germany and Italy (Benedikt Bender). The event was initiated by Simona Piattoni (University of Trento), Luca Verzichelli (University of Siena), Ton Notermans (Tallinn University of Technology) and Claudius Wagemann (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main). The international and interdisciplinary composition of the participants was also reflected in the research contributions and debates in an explicitly productive way. We were particularly pleased with the much-appreciated contributions of the student assistants Alexander Mathewes and Nikolaus Freimuth who travelled with us. For many of the participants, the conference was the first coming together after a long academic conference break. The wonderful ambience of Villa Vigoni made this 'reunion' in late summer temperatures a particularly pleasant experience, which provided us all with a lot of energy for the start of the semester. A presto, Villa Vigoni!